Saturday, November 16, 2024

We arrived in Castries, St. Lucia, at 8am.

St. Lucia is named for Saint Lucy of Syracuse. Supposedly, French sailors were shipwrecked here on Lucy’s feast day, sometime in the late 1400s or early 1500s, so gave the island her name. Like many other Caribbean islands, domination switched back and fort between the British and the French. The island gained its independence in 1979, but remains a part of the British Commonwealth.

We had no tours scheduled for today, so headed out to explore on our own, before it got too hot for us Minnesotans. It didn’t take long.

The Castries Market is listed by US News as one of the best things to do in St. Lucia, and it’s located less than a mile from the cruise port. They have everything you could need: spices, clothing, fruits and vegetables, even sugar cane! Next door is a Craft Market, with plenty of souvenir shopping: hats, shirts, dresses, dolls, carvings. No one will go home empty-handed. St. Lucia is also listed as a destination for chocolate lovers! Expensive, but it should make nice gifts for the folks back home.

We always enjoy stopping into the local markets to see what’s different from home. Besides the fact that the fruits and vegetables are bigger than at home, we found that sundried seaweed, and seaweed infused beverages are a big thing. Didn’t buy any, though. Saturday is a busy shopping day for groceries.

We left St. Lucia around 6pm, with rain clouds in our path.